Loss of face
All Indian cricket fans are clamouring for Facebook to be renamed as Book since they have lost their ‘Face’ at Trentbridge. Mark Zuckerberg read all those messages, watched the low lights of the Indian batting and decided to rename Facebook as Shamefacedlook for a day.
On June 15, 2001 Indians puffed their chest with pride after witnessing the first ever cricket match victory over the British in the movie Lagaan.
On Aug 1, 2011, Indians bowed their heads in shame at the abject surrender to England.
(The above statement was modified a bit. The original that one came across on an FB status went like this - On Aug 15, 1947 Indians puffed their chest with pride after ending British rule in India. On Aug 1, 2011, Indians bowed their heads in shame at the abject surrender to England.)
The Lagaan team was very different from their younger counterparts. The Lagaan team never participated in the IPL. Hence it never had a problem with injuries nor did it’s players cultivate any bad habits of T20 cricket. The only thing that they cultivated was grain which the evil British wanted to tax. Being poor farmers, even if they did play an agricultural shot or two, it wasn’t the IPL’s fault.
The Lagaan team’s captain could actually Bat and bowl and captain very well. The players were not complacent because they were not a part of the #1 ranked team then. In fact the team had a lot of innovative practice sessions and had gotten used to the conditions very well. The team also boasted of a mystery spinner who actually bamboozled the opposition. The two aforementioned teams had one thing in common though. Both had English coaches. Fletcher coaches the current Indian team and Elizabeth coached the Lagaan team. This is for the benefit of the people who tend to forget the good things in the movie and remember Gracy Singh.
The kind of disgust and self loathing generated in the Indian fan post Trent Bridge has been on expected lines but the extremes to which it has gone has surprised one. It was a sorry defeat. A defeat of such humongous and soul searing magnitude from which, one may safely assume that even this Indian team can’t recover. A lot of reasons have been attributed for the loss and most of them are very valid. Almost all of them are incorporated in the Lagaan comparison above.
The reason for this outrage generated in the media and amongst fans also has its roots in the way the team has bounced back in adversity in the past few years. They believed that this team could come back from the brink and actually win. The team’s inability to do another Houdini act in the second Test has incensed them. This Indian team had made people forget the bad old days where a Tendulkar ton was the only bright spot to look forward to. The results were foregone conclusions. Those days seem to be so far away that a reminder has come as an utter shock.
The team has travelled such a long journey from that era to the current one, where, for its fans a win is assumed to be its birth right and like Lokmanya Tilak when they don’t have it, they get agitated. But unlike Tilak, when the Indian fans get agitated any degree of sanity and rationality is lost. It’s an all out war against their own team.
Let’s be fair. England has played better at crunch times and they have won for that. Won convincingly! And that’s about that. One doesn’t want to comment on the hysteria generated in the British press and its paid poodles like Shane Warne and Michael Holding. But when people start talking about the loss in this match as equivalent to subjugating/ shaming the country to its erstwhile rulers is ridiculous.
To be a #1 ranked team India also needs to produce fans of the some quality. Chest thumping and talking about a rank and then wailing and abusing during times of failure is not the sign of maturity. This Indian team has that maturity but its fans badly need some.
One last difference between Lagaan and the Indian team. One continues to hate Lagaan as a movie and still is an avid fan of this India team.